A rare Imperial moulded celadon washer, China, underglaze blue Qianlong seal mark and of the period. 

of mallow form raised on three cabriole legs with shallow sides everting sharply at the rim, the interior delicately carved with a central eight-petalled floret encircled by an intricate meander of scrolling stems and foliage emitting from four lotus heads, each lobe carved on the exterior with a lotus flower and its foliage, all covered with a glossy light celadon glaze. Good condition. D. 15,6 cm. Estimate 80 000/100 000 €

Provenance: Sotheby’s Hongkong, 8.10.2008, Lot 2501 (Property from an Asian Family Collection)

Qianlong censers of this form but of slightly larger dimensions are found with ‘Ge’ and ‘Guan’-type glazes; see a ‘Ge’ type example formerly from the J.M. Hu family collection and Robert Chang collection sold Sotheby’s New York, 4th June 1985, lot 65, and again, Christie’s Hong Kong, 2nd November 1999, lot 517; a ‘Guan’ type censer sold Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 28th April 1998, lot 768; and a smaller example covered in a ‘Ru’ celadon glaze illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 334, A ‘Guan’-period, formerly in the Carl Kempe collection, is published in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, vol. 9, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 274; and another covered in a clair-de-lune glaze, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is included in Qingdai yuyao ciqi, vol. 1, pt. II, Beijing, 2005, pl. 205.

For a Song prototype of this form, compare a brushwasher of the same flower shape but lacking the tripod feet, published in the Illustated Catalogue of Sung Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum. Southern Sung Kuan Ware, Taipei, 1974, pl. 54.  

Nagel. "Asian Art". 2012/11/02 http://www.auction.de/